Fantasist's Scroll

What if Darth Vader were a chick?
Okay, so I saw “Revenge of the Sith” last week Sunday afternoon with a friend and it was good. Not great, but, considering we all knew how it would end anyway, it was pretty good. Special effects were first rate and seeing it on the IMAX screen was, well, like the “old days” of movie going. Well worth the $10.
Anyway, someone said something the other day that got me thinking… How different would all these movies have been if Anakin Skywalker had been, say “Anne” or “Annabelle” Skywalker? How much more tragic would that scene in Episode V have been when Darth told Luke the truth? “Luke, I’m your mother!” After all, mothers are supposed to be the source of all comfort and care and light. Imagine the horror of your own mother turning to the Dark Side and trying to twist you to a path of hate, fear and anger. What a powerful image that is!
Now, do any of you faithful readers, either of you, dare to re-write the Star Wars story with that one twist? I dare you.

My favorite fantasy author is experimenting.
Specifically, Lawrence Watt-Evans is serializing an Ethshar novel called The Spriggan Mirror. Apparently, the fans are clamoring for more Ethshar, but not loudly enough to be heard in the halls of the ivory towers of publishing. So, dedicated author that he is, Lawrence has begun serializing the novel on his website. Every week that he has recieved $100, or more, in donations, he will post a chapter, until the entire book is “exposed”. Of course, if he hasn’t recieved the required donations, he doesn’t post anything that week. So, all you rich kids who like Lawrence Watt-Evans, go spend your allowance on this project, so I can read this fine novel for free.

Oh, you know I’m going to contribute, but it’s Friday, so I thought I’d have a little fun. Now, go read as much of The Spriggan Mirror as you can before the boss catches you!

Actually, it’s Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle’s birthday.
But, since he is Dr. Watson, and Holmes, too, in a way, well… Anyway, this comes from the Writer’s Almanac:

It’s the birthday of novelist and short story writer Arthur Conan Doyle, (books by this author) born in Edinburgh, Scotland (1859). Conan Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh where he met Doctor Joseph Bell, whose amazing deductions about the history of his patients fascinated the young student. After completing his studies, Conan Doyle served as a ship’s doctor on voyages to Greenland and West Africa, and eventually opened his own practice. In his spare moments, he began writing. Calling on his memories of Doctor Bell, Conan Doyle created a detective who used his great powers of deduction to solve crimes. The first such story, A Study in Scarlet, introduced the detective Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick, Doctor Watson, in 1887. All told, Conan Doyle wrote 56 Sherlock Holmes stories and four Holmes novels.

(And, yes, this also appeared on my other blog, Diary of a Network Geek.)

Unfortunately, that leaves little time to be creative.
Still, it’s that job that pays for this website, so I guess it’s not all bad! I have been writing a bit, or at least trying to write. At the suggestion of my therapist, who I can’t see right now thanks to insurance and job change issues, I was trying to write a story that did NOT include fantastic or magical or science-fictional elements. Honestly, it was going okay, but I just didn’t have much invested in the story, so I haven’t done well writing on it. Well, that and my total lack of time for writing and discipline. I still suffer from the illusion that my writing should be “inspired” and just flow naturally onto the page. Sadly, that’s just not how it is for most writers, especially the professionals.
Oh, but I do have an OpenOffice Story Templatethat you can download! (Just click the link and you’ll get it.) It might be a little buggy, but it should get you started. If you have problems, let me know and, if I have time, I’ll try to get them worked out.

I know why I have such trouble starting stories.
The answer came to me while reading someone else’s blog: Chad Fowler. He was talking about the book he’s working on and his observations of other people who want to write books. His observation, which I thought was dead on accurate, was that most people wanted to have written a book, not to go through the process of writing a book. I think many people dream of being a writer, but few dream of the work involved in writing. There are times that I can sympathize with that.
But, my problem tends to be indecision. I have a hard time picking which story is worth writing. Or, which story is most worth writing. So, I fret over which one to start until it just doesn’t interest me any more, or until I come up with enough pre-writing requirements, so that I never actually get to the writing part. Hmm, that therapy stuff must be making me more insightfull or something. Damn. One less excuse.

I need strange, metaphorical symbols.
I’ve been thinking about surreal imagery lately. Things like the anthropomorphic caterpillar from Disney’s version of “Alice in Wonderland” and the dancing mushrooms from “Fantasia” keep popping into my head as wonderful symbols of some strange story that’s hiding just below the surface of the “real” story. And, too, William S. Burrough’s work with the exterminator/giant cockroach theme has been a frightening inspiration as well. Not to mention the “bug” in Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”. So, I’ve been thinking about doing something similar. Taking a list of semi-random symbols and imagery and mashing it into a story. And, I’m going for something very Dali-eseque, but in a literary sense. Of course, the challenge is to get the symbols to use. The stranger, the better, I think.
And, now, gentle readers, here is my plea: Give me your wildest ideas in the comments. Suggest the strangest, most disturbing, funniest, most unusual symbolic references you can think of. As long as we keep it “family friendly”, anything goes. But, you have to give me their “true” meaning, as well. For example, “A giant, talking, anthropomorphic caterpillar => The main character’s SuperEgo”. (Actually, that may just be where I start…) So, there we are.
I’m open to suggestions!

Here’s a variation on last week’s writing exercise.
Instead of using a “cliched” title or phrase, use the title from one of your favorite books or authors. Of course, you must write a totally different story than the one associated with your chosen title, but that can be half the fun. For example, you might want to rewrite a favorite story but with your own ideas about what the characters would do. Or, perhaps you want to continue a story where the author left off. Both are fine ways to start, but remember that you’ll need to go back and edit the characters so that they are yours, not your favorite author’s characters anymore. And, keep in mind, that means more than just changing the names!
Another possibility is to take a favorite title and write a story in a totally different genre. As an example, I love Ernest Hemingway and I think his titles are often quite evocative, but I love fantasy and science-fiction. So, perhaps “The Sun Also Rises” might be a good working title for a sci-fi epic! And, “The Old Man and the Sea” might take on some interesting connotations as a fantasy story filled with old gods and high magic.
The point here is to let your imagination run wild. This is meant to be an aid to creativity that gets you writing when you might have some trouble starting. As always, though, remember to change the title to your own and edit anything that doesn’t belong in your final work out before submitting your story for publication.

A working title helps me write.
When I was a kid in grade school, I knew I wanted to be a writer. It was the Fifth Grade, in Mrs. Ploen’s class, that I first started writing creatively and recieving praise for doing so. That was the same year that my older brother got tired of telling me about the science-fiction books he was reading and shoved Ringworld into my hands to read for myself. It was, as you might imagine, a pivotal year.
I still go back to the method of writing that I learned that year. Our teacher would write a title on the board for us and demand a story. I’m sure there were minimum requirements in pages or words or both, though they escape me now. That was our only constraint, however, that title. We could make our story into anything we wanted, as long as it had something to do with the title we’d been given. I managed to take “My Adventure At The Circus” and turn out a fantasy piece about a boy going to an underground kingdom of dwarves where he became the fated saviour of their entire way of life. Not bad for a kid in the Fifth Grade. Heck, there was even a recognizable plot. That’s more than I can say for some of my later work, frankly.
I still go back to that technique because it’s usefull for getting me started. These days, I may change the title when I’m done, but using that kind of working title gets me started, which is often the hardest thing in the world for me. This is a method that can work for you, as well. You can come up with a title in many different ways. You can use my very own Story Starter, or you can simply use a cliche. (Here’s one list of Cliches and Weak Phrases by Jessica Page Morrell to get you started, if you need help.) So, pick a cliched working title and then start to write a story. If nothing else, it will get you started writing something, which is the only way to produce anything. If you’re lucky, it will give you a story that can be worked into something for sale. Just don’t forget to change the cliched title to something that works better before you send it off!

So, what are you waiting for? Get writing!